Comment

This drawing depicts the monastery of S. Eframo Vecchio, on the east side of Capodimonte on the way to Santa Maria de’ Monti. Thomas Jones noted that he spent time with Towne on 31 March 1781,1 which is the date that Towne inscribed on the mount of this drawing (before later scratching it out). As this monastery was not a common destination for foreign artists, perhaps this was one of the “picturesque Scenes of my Own discovery, entirely out of the common road of occasional Visiters, either Cavaliers or Artists, from Rome”,2 to which Jones led Towne during his stay in Naples.

The drawing has clearly been worked on extensively during a period much later than 1781. Towne made a copy dated 1783 (FT395).